Fabric Durability and that Pa'lante new new

whats up nerds.

I posted in the weekly and was told to make a standalone post, so here it goes.

I stopped by rockywoods fabrics to buy some odds and ends, and I picked up some samples of the new Pa'lante desert pack fabrics and some 500d cordura.

Side note: Diamondhide is the official name of them fabric, "Ultra" is what Pa'lante calls it. It is made by challenge, who also make northpak and ecopak. Diamondhide is a 67% UHMWPE/ 33% poly woven fabric laminated to a waterproof .5mil PET backing. It comes in 400d and 800d, and soon in 200d.

I decided to do some abrasion resistance testing with common UL pack fabrics on ye olde grinder™. I would tape the fabric and a piece of 1/8" foam to a 11lb weight and time it leaning against the grinder. This worked a bit, but it shredded things a bit too fast to learn much from. After this, I transitioned to pressing them by hand and cutting them on the edge.

VX07 and 210 robic got shredded fast.

400 ultra (on the new Pa'lante) and 500d cordura faired pretty evenly, with a slight edge for abrasion resistance going to the cordura in my very unscientific tests with this specific set up. After they were both in tatters by the end, the cordura ripped easily, but the diamondhide stayed rock solid. I was very impressed with both, but especially impressed by the massive difference between 210 robic and 500d cordura.

The 800 ultra is incredibly, incredibly strong. Many times the 400 ultra and 500 cordura.

PICS

a note from Pa'lante on delamination. I didn't notice the film separating from the fabric at all, but I also wasn't testing delam.

I actually ended up purchasing the desert pack based on my tests, and I plan to make a few packs out of the 200d version in black when it becomes available.

TLDR: The 400d diamondhide keeps up with 500d cordura in abrasion and weighs about the same as 210 gridstop. It also beats the hell out of both in tear strength and can be taped. 😍

edit to add Pa'lante posted Challenge's much more scientific Taber D3884 abrasion test results